Flathead Valley snowfall still isn't up to winter of '96 standards, but Mother Nature began closing the gap Thursday and Friday.

Since the ball dropped in TImes Square on New Year's Eve, the Flathead has received about 20 inches of snow, said Bridget De Rosa, hydrometeorological technician with the National Weather Service in Missoula.

"We don't yet have confirmed data," De Rosa said Friday afternoon, "but I wouldn't be surprised if they called in with 15 inches or more" snowfall Friday.

That's in addition to the 6.4 inches that fell Thursday, a Jan. 1 snowfall record, according to the National Weather Service. The old record, 5.2 inches, was set in 1968.

In two days, this month's snowfall is nearly two-thirds the amount the Flathead received in December. Last month, Kalispell recorded 34.3 inches of snow, De Rosa said.

On Friday, Kalispell reported receiving 13 inches of snow overnight, she said. A point just north of Bigfork recorded 12 inches in 12 hours ending at 10 a.m. Friday. Columbia Falls had received 9 inches and Hungry Horse 8 inches Friday morning.

The most overnight snowfall was reported at Kila, De Rosa said, which reported 15 inches of snow at 11 a.m. Friday. Six of those inches fell between 6 and 8:30 a.m., according to the Montana Department of Transportation.

U.S. 2 from Marion to Kila received from 12 to 16 inches of new snow between 6 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., according to the department. U.S. 2 from Coram to Marias Pass received from 12 to 18 inches of new snow during that time.

The U.S. Forest Service Glacier Country Avalanche Center rated the current avalanche danger as high in nearly all the mountain ranges of Northwest Montana.

"The new snowfall is building a more consolidated, dense slab layer, which is now sitting atop the weakly bonded and lower-density snow received earlier in December," Forest Service avalanche specialist Stan Bones said.

Travel in avalanche terrain is not recommended. Both natural- and human-triggered avalanches are likely, he said.

The snowfall made roads difficult to navigate and kept city, county and state snowplows busy all day Friday.

Every available county plow was out, the Roads and Bridges Department said. Employees on vacation were called in at 5:30 a.m. to plow and were asked to work until 6 p.m., county snowplow driver Gordon "Merle" Browning said. They'll be out all day again today.

Kalispell city plowing crews and police had their hands full with drivers who headed onto the snow-clogged streets, despite the city's call for "essential travel" only.

"They headed out in their cars for their milk and their cigarettes just like it was a normal day," Kalispell police Senior Sgt. Alan Bardwell said Friday afternoon. "Later in the day it cleared out some, but it took awhile because people wouldn't stay home."

One of the biggest obstacles for plows was all the vehicles parked on the streets, he said. Already, one motorcycle got swiped by a plow because it looked like just another mound of snow along the curb.

Bardwell urged people to tend to their own vehicles by clearing the snow from them and being prepared to shovel themselves out because plows cannot make it to every street every day. If at all possible, get parked vehicles off the streets.

"It slows down the whole process," Bardwell said. "People need to tend to it."

Columbia Falls city plowing crews hit the streets early Thursday, but were called off later in the day when they couldn't keep ahead of the continuing snowfall. They were expected to be back on the streets at 2 a.m. today.

The city saw very few accidents, but police tried to help when possible as calls came in about drivers stuck in alleys and on the streets.

Whitefish police logged four accidents by the end of Friday afternoon, and picked up one driver when he was traveling in the wrong lane directly toward an oncoming officer. He was taken to the station at 2 a.m. on suspicion of drunken driving, in the midst of some of the heaviest snowfall.

A tree fell over power lines along U.S. 93 North just outside Whitefish at about 1 a.m., and swayed precariously over the highway until Flathead Electric crews cut the power and removed the tree.

North Whitefish was one of the hardest-hit areas for power outages, with about 1,000 people losing electricity temporarily in the Dakota Avenue, Wisconsin Avenue, Bay Point, Big Mountain Road, Houston Drive and U.S. 93 North areas.

All told, the electric cooperative reported 18 scattered outages that caused disruptions in service to about 1,700 people. About 400 lost power in the Ashley Lake Road, Bitterroot Lake, lower Lost Prairie and Marion areas.

Crews were out in force trying to restore service all day, the cooperative reported.

All of the state Transportation Department's 600 plows were out Friday, public information officer Charity Watt Levis said. Fifty of those were busy in the Flathead.

In the event of a 'statewide snow event," such as what hit Montana on Friday, "we can put on enough miles to travel around the equator," Watt Levis said.

The plows will be out this weekend, she added.

"If we have to, we will work 24-7," she said. "We have enough crews and enough equipment. … We will clear the road and make them as safe for travel as we possibly can."

Several people across the valley had trouble navigating the roads. The Montana Highway Patrol helped many vehicles get unstuck, Trooper David Mills said.

Kalispell's volume of traffic exasperated police and plow crews throughout the day but it prompted surprisingly few crashes.

Police said a man knocked by a vehicle in Kalispell Center Mall's parking lot went to the hospital with minor injuries, a truck plowing snow backed into a car in a pawn shop's lot, and there was a minor rear-end accident at Main and Sixth.

A man clearing the snow load off his fabric-canopy carport was pinned for at least five minutes against the steel rack atop his truck when the canopy collapsed on top of him.

Kalispell drivers experienced a lot of slide-ins, Bardwell said, but drivers generally helped one another get out of trouble. One sedan got stuck in the middle of the road when its driver tried to cross a snow berm, a maneuver that even hung up some four-wheel drives.

One local man, Donald Towe, spent most of the day helping hapless drivers get back on the road.

"Anybody who was stuck, he just pulled out with his Bronco," Towe's mother, Kara Towe, said.

It started when his wife got stuck first thing Friday morning. He helped to get her out, and then drove her to work. On his way back home, Towe, 23, noticed several other drivers stuck in the snow.

"He said, 'Gee whiz, there must be people everywhere stuck,'" Kara Towe said. "He began patrolling neighborhood areas and has just been going nonstop."

By midafternoon Friday Towe had pulled out about a dozen drivers. Several tried to pay him, but Towe refused.

"He just loves his Bronco, and he loves pulling people out," his mother said.

Even with good Samaritans such as Towe on the road, drivers were encouraged to stay home if possible. Flathead County Sheriff Mike Meehan recommended emergency travel only on all county-owned roads Friday morning. The city of Kalispell issued a similar statement, recommending residents limit driving to "essential travel only."

Staying home is a good idea when even snowplows have trouble staying on the road. Browning's plow ended up on its side in the ditch Friday morning on Church Drive.

"I couldn't see where the side of the road was. The snow was even with the ditches," he said. "It was like a guessing game out there in the morning."

Blowing snow didn't help, Browning added.

"The wind was howling pretty heavy out there," he said. "I didn't even realize I was off the road. I thought I was in the middle of the road."

Browning wasn't injured and the truck wasn't damaged. He simply had to wait for a tow truck to put the plow right again, then he was back on the roads for another eight hours. He expected to get off work at 6 p.m. Friday, then get back on his plow at 5:30 a.m. today.

Scattered snow showers and lower temperatures are in today's forecast, De Rosa said. Arctic air will make the valley chilly, but not as cold as it was in early December.

Kalispell can expect a high of about 11 degrees today, De Rosa said. The temperature will reach about 12 degrees in West Glacier.

The mercury will begin to climb again Monday and remain "fairly warm - near 30" - throughout the week, she said. More precipitation is expected Thursday.

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com. Reporter Nancy Kimball may be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com